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Nokia's CEO on how he wants to turn around the company's fortunes

As the once outright leader in the mobile phone market, Nokia had the world in its pocket. Or rather we all had Nokia in our pockets. But then Apple launched the iPhone, to which Nokia had no answer and since the dawn of the age of smartphones the Finnish firm's fortunes have spiralled -- downward.

So with the company seemingly in freefall, can new CEO Stephen Elop bring the brand back from the brink, and if so, how?

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We spoke to the ex-Microsoft man exclusively, ahead of the Nokia World conference in London where he will launch the Nokia Lumia 710 and Lumia 800 handsets. These two phones are the first Windows Phone 7-powered smartphones Nokia has released, following its deal with Microsoft earlier in the year to use its consumer platform for its high-end devices.

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Gallery: Nokia's CEO on how he wants to turn around the company's fortunes

ByNate Lanxon

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Nokia also has a deal with Monster Cable, which produces the Beats headphones, to include headphones made by Monster with the Lumia 800, and the phone will ship in three colours: black, red and blue (seen above).

The Nokia Lumia 710 has the same size screen size as the Lumia 800 and also runs Mango. But it has slightly less memory (8GB) has a 5-megapixel camera without the posh Carl Zeiss optics, measures 119 x 62 x 13mm and weighs 126g. Plus, it has interchangable covers. Y'know, for the kids.

Updated 12:13 04/11/2011: Pricing has been announced from most networks. Three will be selling it on PAYG for £399 or on a 24-month contract at £30 per month, and Vodafone and Orange will offer it free on 18 and 24-month contracts starting at £31 per month.

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Wired.co.uk will be at Nokia World and have hands-on reports with the two new phones shortly. The Lumia 800 will arrive in November 2011.

Wired.co.uk: What's the announcement at Nokia World 2011 that's going to restore faith in the brand?

Stephen Elop: At Nokia World, in front of our partners, operators, developers, suppliers, shareholders and customers we [will introduce] some incredible mobile products -- our first Nokia with Windows phone, and new mobile phones, including our first QWERTY device offering dual SIM capabilities. We [will announce] an exclusive partnership with Monster, which creates incredible high-performance audio gear. Equally important, I think we [will make] significant momentum with the operators, retailers, developers, suppliers in attendance in building a compelling and mutually beneficial ecosystem.

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How long will you continue with Symbian and Meego and when do you think all phones will become smartphones?

I think we are already seeing that trend happening today. In fact, the mission of our mobile phones unit is to "connect the next billion". This isn't through voice, but through the internet. Look at the three "feature phones" we [will introduce] at Nokia World.

Touch screen? Yes. QWERTY keyboard? Yes. In additional to playing Angry Birds, these devices offer a more powerful browser for a richer internet experience, location and mapping applications, multi-gigabytes of memory for music and media consumptions. And more social opportunities through Facebook, WhatsApp, and more.

Only Nokia is able to deliver these kinds of smartphone-like experiences at accessible prices people expect for a feature phone.

And we continue to make that experience better.

Symbian continues to play an important role in our smartphone strategy. We have introduced a number of new Symbian products this year, and have delivered two major OS updates with Symbian Anna and Symbian Belle. We remain committed to supporting Symbian until 2016.

With Google buying Motorola, HP buying Palm and Nokia joining Microsoft, is it essential to have a computer company behind you to compete with Apple? Where does that leave Sony Ericsson and Samsung?

There is one thing you can say about this industry -- it is never dull. While we are partnering with Microsoft on our smartphone strategy, we have a different strategy in place for our mobile phones business. At Nokia World, we [will showcase] the momentum we are making in newly formed Location & Commerce business, where one key area of focus is supporting new technologies to grow our ecosystem and differentiate Nokia products from the pack.

I'm not sure what a computer company actually is anymore, but I do know that consumers expect a wide array of capabilities that are seamlessly integrated into a great experience. Whether provided by us directly or by our partners, we must first ensure that a consumer's digital needs are addressed.

Can you turn around the fortunes of a floundering company like Nokia and take on a company like Apple in one of the fastest evolving technology sectors?

It is true that we operate in one of the most dynamic industries in the world during one of its most transformative times. To navigate through this time, we are taking a very deliberate approach. I've seen beautiful innovation inside our labs, through demos and from our engineers. With our new focus and clarity, I believe employees can unleash their creative work to consumers.

Why were you chosen for this task? Having Microsoft on your CV can't have hurt, but was it a stipulation of the deal between Nokia and your old company?

The reasons for my selection are best asked of the Nokia Board of Directors. That being said, I believe I bring to Nokia experience in areas that are increasingly important during this transformative time of mobile ecosystems: areas like software, cloud-based services as well as an understanding of how to help companies transition through a period of disruption.

We understand morale in Helsinki is low and there are accusations of a take-down by Microsoft from the inside? Is this the case?

There is a great deal of positive momentum and energy building inside the company as we execute our new strategy. Over the past few weeks I've been meeting with teams in India, China, the US, Finland, and in various parts of Europe. The shifting of employees' attitudes towards the future was very apparent.

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For example, I was meeting the teams in Ulm, Germany focused on our Next Billion strategy. And, I knew the team was in a good spot because they were challenged -- and deeply engaged in those challenges. In the early stages of the pursuit of a new strategy, there is always novel excitement about the plans and a halo effect around the changes that lie ahead. That time has passed. Instead, I witnessed a deeper passion and commitment from the Ulm team as they confronted the specific technical and market challenges that they must overcome. They are discovering challenges they didn't anticipate. They are making tough decisions about engineering trade-offs. They are debating marketing plans and sales strategies.

They are testing products, finding solutions and making some surprising adjustments. And, this is all good news. It means the team is moving their plans forward and beginning to produce results. And, the team said to me... they love their jobs.

This same level of enthusiasm is apparent in many areas across the company, as we get ready to ship our first Nokia devices with Windows Phone, as we show great user experience innovation with Symbian Belle, as we make progress with our dual SIM products, as our Location and Commerce strategy comes into focus and so on.